The US Army's M47/M48 riot control grenades have been suspended from issue because of certain hazards in the operation thereof caused by faulty design. These granades, when activated, emit a cloud of smoke which includes eye and nasal passage irritants. The grenades are intended to disburse unruly and unlawfully assembled crowds, but are not intended to produce any injury, however slight, except for brief eye and nose irritation. The prior art design of these grenades included a two piece firing pin and one piece of this pin was released at high speed, propelled by the firing pin spring, when the firing pin was actuated as the grenade was thrown at a target. These firing pin sections sometimes caused facial or eye injury to the grenade user. Also, these grenades were subject to occasional delayed firing, a condition known as "hang-fires". If this delayed firing occurred while the grenade was in the midst of the crowd to be dispersed, members of the crowd could be injured by the flying firing pin section. The hang-fire defect was caused by dry O-rings which would prevent the firing pins from freely moving after the grenade was armed.
The prior art arm/safe mechanism of this grenade also included a safety slide assembly which required selective assembly and hence was costly. Also, the grenades had occasional problems of pyrotechnic delay in its ignition system, because of the lack of hermetic sealing thereof.
The new fuze of the present invention overcomes all of these disadvantages of the old design.